What is Ki Aikido?

• become calm and effective under pressure
• increase your relaxation and posture
• improve your health
• experience a positive, non-aggressive, non-competitive art
• study partner-based exercises
• practised by all ages and abilities

Aikido is a modern budo – a method to train the student’s character as much as their ability to look after themselves. It develops the individual at the physical, mental and energetic levels.

In practical terms, what does that mean?

 

Visit a class and you’ll see paired students taking turns to attack each other. When successful, the defender unbalances the attacker or immobilises them on the mat. The challenge is to achieve this with minimal effort.

Minimal effort, maximum efficiency

Aikido works by redirecting incoming energy rather than resisting it, making it suitable for all ages and body types. Students develop a relaxed, upright, powerful body. Through regular practice, mobility, flexibility, stamina, and strength all improve.

Beyond the physical, Aikido sharpens the mind by enhancing focus, awareness, and mindfulness, helping practitioners calmly and effectively handle challenges in daily life.

These physical and mental improvements increase our energetic awareness both within ourself and of the space around, and with that our sense of well-being.

 

Supportive community

Practised regularly, Aikido develops a healthy mental and spiritual disposition as well as physical well-being, encouraging a high moral standard within its teaching. The real Aikido spirit seeks to help others as well as oneself.

The Ki Federation deliberately fosters a supportive community and offers lifelong learning, making it much more than just an art — it’s a practical way to enliven oneself, improve health, and develop mental strength. Students report feeling healthier and happier in their lives, more resilient and confident.

Suitable for all

The beautiful, flowing, relaxed, and yet powerful, movements of Aikido are performed to the students’ own level of ability. It can therefore be practiced by everyone, including children, equally. The purpose of the practise is to learn to co-ordinate our mind and body. We are training our mind to be non-reactive and our body to be pliable and responsive.

Classes are suitable for all levels of fitness, and all ages and sizes. Within a Ki Aikido Club, discipline and etiquette are maintained in a friendly and enjoyable atmosphere of mutual respect. There is no aggression, no violence, no tension and no competition. Ki Aikido does not rely on size or strength in any way.

The exercises teach us many universal laws of motion and natural movement. They help us to discover where we are tense and tight, and how we can relax and release that tension to become more efficient and effective.

A student’s development is marked by their ability to blend with an attack or deliver one, take a fall safely, and redirect the attacker’s energy. This is refined as the student progresses.